ISRAEL has invaded Syria while it and the United States have launched hundreds of bombing raids over the country in the last few days, the Communist Party warned on Tuesday night.

Israeli ministers openly boast they have destroyed the entire Syrian fleet and are smashing its military infrastructure, aiming at the very least at turning Syria into a limited-sovereignty territory Israel’s armed forces can patrol and bomb at will, Ben Chacko told the party’s political committee.

Yet the longer-term implications could be still more serious, with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on record saying Israel should extend to Damascus and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu boasting he is “reshaping” the Middle East ahead of the inauguration of incoming US president Donald Trump, whose sympathy with the “Greater Israel” project is well known.